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As a star on this year’s Strictly, TV presenter LAURA WHITMORE is fulfilling a long-held dream. But it’s not just about dancing the perfect jive; she is also hoping to quickstep away those ‘man-eater’ rumours
TV presenter Laura Whitmore reveals the truth behind the Strictly rumour mill
Laura Whitmore is a woman with a remarkable reputation. The star of Strictly and former MTV presenter has been romantically linked to Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio, rock star Paolo Nutini, One Direction’s Niall Horan, DJ Calvin Harris and supermodel David Gandy – and these are just a few of the famous men (there are many more) that the Bardoesque blonde has hit the headlines with. She was the first star to kick off this season’s Strictly, with a red hot cha cha that prompted even more headlines than Judge Rinder flashing his bare chest; she clearly knows how to attract attention. Even before any celebrity feet had hit the floor on this year’s show, it was Laura who made the news when it was announced that she had been partnered with the sloe-eyed Sicilian Giovanni Pernice – who happens to be the very recent ex of one of her best friends, the actress Georgia May Foote. (Georgia’s own love affair with the professional dancer began when he swept her off her feet – and into the finals – during last year’s Strictly.)
The day we meet, the gossip columns are still bristling with speculation that Georgia was devastated by the coupling and feared her ex would fall for her friend. Headlines dramatically trumpeted a ‘ Strictly Love Triangle’ and, despite a supportive tweet from Georgia to her 300,000 or so Twitter followers (‘Please don’t believe the c*** you read. [Laura’s] a beautiful person’), speculation is rife of a new curse (Georgia’s split) and a new
Strictly romance (for Laura). You might imagine that Irish-born Laura – whose career as a presenter on MTV and host of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! NOW! has been boosted by the seemingly endless ➤
public appetite for the celebrity press – would welcome such a controversial baptism into Saturday night’s top-rating entertainment show.
You would, however, be wrong. On the surface, the 31-year-old television presenter is all smiles as she talks exclusively to YOU about her Strictly debut. She shows me several huge bruises on her slim calves, talks about her surprising friendship with Ed Balls (‘He’s a lovely man’), Strictly girls’ nights in the dressing rooms where she, Louise Redknapp, Lesley Joseph and co raid Daisy Lowe’s snack drawer (‘She has crisps, chocolate and all sorts of goodies’) and tells me how she had to ask a member of the costume department to go to the bathroom with her minutes before the first show was recorded. ‘One of my worries was that the costumes would slip off. Then I realised they were immovable. You get sewn into them. I had a panic because I needed to go to the loo and had to ask one of the ladies to come with me to loosen my dress.’
But it is clear something is amiss. As we talk, Laura pulls her denim jacket around herself protectively. She bites her lower lip and there is unmistakable anxiety in her pale blue eyes. For a woman who is meant to be such a man-eater that she’d happily snatch away her best friend’s ex, she is certainly not acting the part of the cool blonde rock chick.
She tells me some time later that Judge Rinder has told her she needs to toughen up. ‘He says I’m too nice about everything and I shouldn’t be. He gives me £10 every time I say something nasty. I have £40 for saying nasty things about him.’
First she addresses, hesitantly, the Strictly rumour mill – but midway through explaining how ‘I’m just trying to ignore it’ she has to stop to halt the tears that are freely falling. She apologises and shakes her head. She is, she says, ‘mortified’ about the sobbing, which doesn’t let up. In the past, Laura made a decision not to comment on speculation about her love life but now she has had enough. ‘I’m just so upset about it. My problem is that people have no idea who I am. To them I’m this TV presenter with blonde hair who gets linked to every single man I interview or stand next to.’
It is clear from her distress that Laura is nothing like the woman she has been painted to be by the tabloids. Having split in March from her boyfriend of eight months, Sunset Sons rocker Rory Williams, she says: ‘Break-ups are hard. It has happened to me and it’s devastating. When my friends go through a split I feel their pain, too. That is the woman I am.’
Part of the reason behind doing Strictly was, she explains, to try to change the perception of her as a TV sex kitten. ‘I wanted to do Strictly because it’s a family audience – there will be a lot of people who don’t know anything about me. It’s the one show where people get a chance to see you for who you are. And then this whole thing with Giovanni blew up in my face. I couldn’t believe it could all go so wrong, so fast. Georgia – who is a good friend of mine – has been lovely but I felt things had been spoilt before I’d even got a chance to start.
‘I do care what people think about me. My relationship with Giovanni is completely professional. That’s all I ever want it to be. When all this happened he called me and told me not to let any of it get to me, to ignore it and get on with the show. To be honest he’s far too young for me and even though I’m single I’m still going on a couple of dates when I have the time – but not with Giovanni.’
When we talk again a few weeks later – soon after the first show airs – the pressure on Laura hasn’t let up, with reports that Georgia May Foote ‘unfollowed’ her on Instagram and acres of description of her ‘very steamy’ first dance with the Italian.
‘It has definitely affected my dancing,’ she confesses. ‘I’m so self-conscious I haven’t allowed myself to develop a proper partnership with Giovanni.
‘He’s aware of it and so am I but I keep holding back. We were the first out on the floor on the first show and I was so nervous I couldn’t feel my legs. But I was fully aware I wasn’t letting myself go because of all the rumours about us. The other day we were made [by the BBC producers] to go out and bond. We climbed over the O2 building and then had a drink and it was brilliant fun. I’ve got to ignore all the stories and just be myself with Giovanni, but it hasn’t been easy.’
As for the story about her friend Georgia May unfollowing her, she shrugs. ‘She did. But she’s following me again now. It’s complicated. I understand she doesn’t want to see pictures of her ex. But everything gets blown out of all proportion.’
Much of the reason for Laura’s discomfort lies in her Irish background as the only child of her single mother Carmel; her convent-school education and upbringing in the tiny town of Bray, County Wicklow. ‘My mother brought me up to be a good girl. She wanted me to be strong and independent and to challenge myself. I was incredibly shy when I was young, so she took Pinko. SHOES, Jimmy Choo